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Builds / Re: Juggernaut build that dosnt miss out on crafting and dialouge?

« on: February 04, 2021, 03:01:42 am »

It’s a 7.5% on average increase of damage for the weapon that already has the highest damage output in the game. Talk about useless.

You're driving the OP into a build you want to play, not one that they asked to play.  The build they asked to play has a bit of stat spread since they wanted crafting and dialog, meaning they end up with a middling Perception, and thus will not get the full dakka dakka of a very high-skill AR.  Gun Nut would be about the equivalent of an extra point of Perception, which will indeed be noticeable - at the higher end of gear, it'll be a greater flat increase than, say, Expertise.  Neither is very useful, though, and you're laughably wrong with your idea that I'm stumping for it.  I just didn't pull it off the feat list that they came up with for their own character, because it's not as useless as Conditioning is.

AR doesn't need anything.  SubterminalOptimization beat Tchort on DOMINATING with a level 6 character using ARs.  ARs don't need any feats at all to beat the game, so it's largely academic.

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Builds / Re: Juggernaut build that dosnt miss out on crafting and dialouge?

« on: February 04, 2021, 02:28:40 am »

Conditioning is also great if you are going that high in con. 15% damage reduction is nothing to sneeze at. No other feat grants that much protection without some other special conditions.

Except it isn't 15% damage reduction.  It's 15% of what gets through first the shield, then the armor, because UnderRail reduces damage in layers.  Since it's a metal armor build, only maybe 10-20% of damage will get through, then Conditioning will reduce 15% of that - so, 2-3% damage reduction.

So think about a big hit on a barely mid-game character.  300 damage comes in.  Shield takes 50.  250 goes to armor, armor block 80%.  50 damage gets through; Conditioning blocks 7, if you've got that high Con.  7 of 300.

Think about a big hit on late game gear.  600 damage comes in.  Shield blocks 130.  470 goes to armor.  Armor is capped and blocks 95%.  23 damage goes to character.  Conditioning blocks 3.  3 of 600.

Best case for Conditioning is a big hit that you don't have armor for.  No fire protection and a barrel blows up.  200 damage.  0 mitigation because your shield is off for whatever reason.  200 damage comes in, Conditioning blocks 30.  You still take 170.  The difference there is no difference.

Conditioning could be good, but instead it's useless.  If its damage reduction applied first, it would be amazing, a must-have for tanky builds.  If it stacked with armor to cap, it would be excellent, and a very strong choice for almost any character that gets hit a lot, regardless of gear.  But it doesn't do those things.  It instead does almost nothing.

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Builds / Re: ''Brains over brawn'' build

« on: February 03, 2021, 07:55:17 am »

You might prefer some investment in stealth.  You can craft up a heck of a good stealth set, so you don't need a lot of investment, but pistols are fairly short-range weapons, and Thought Control is a notoriously short-range psi discipline, so the ability to get good placement before starting a fight might come in handy.

By extension, some traps might be nice.  Since you've got so much Chemistry, you should assume you're going to be making and using very nice, high-tier traps.  And grenades.  Thus, a little bit of throwing might be nice, too.  Thanks to that high Dex, you only need about 50 real points in Traps to be able to use the highest tier traps in the game.  Also, you only need maybe 30 real points in Throwing to be fairly accurate with grenades at reasonable distances.  That leaves you either well over 100 real points for Stealth, or 50-70 real points and even more Throwing so you can rely on grenades a bit further out.

Personally, I prefer active defenses to passive ones (which is why I'm always happy to drop Dodge/Evasion for Stealth, and then try to lean to play "smarter" when I die), but if you like passive defense, ignore most of my advice in this post and stick with Evasion because it will help with those long-range threats that you may have a hard time reaching.

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Builds / Re: Juggernaut build that dosnt miss out on crafting and dialouge?

« on: February 03, 2021, 07:49:21 am »

I'd probably work towards something like this.  Clearly, there's at least one more feat to take before you can that Veteran feat; I removed Expertise because personally I never really felt it was very effective for ARs which are generally fairly high-damage-per-bullet, but if you want to put it back, it will probably be a noticeable help.  I just think it's not quite as important as other feats in that list.

I'd always suggest taking crafting as late in the game as you're comfortable, and by extension, starting with as low an Intelligence score as you're comfortable with and building it up to 7 as you go.  You really don't need to do any high-skill crafting until level 20 or so - that's about where your character will be by the time you unlock the top-tier vendors, so you won't have much in the way of premium components much before then anyway.

Playing a tin can without Sprint will make you want to kill yourself, so take that fairly early.

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Builds / Re: ''Brains over brawn'' build

« on: February 03, 2021, 07:11:28 am »

You don't have any feats which require Agility, nor Perception.  If you reclaim those 4 points, put them in Dexterity, and swap out Pack Rathound for Versatility, then you can put your 14 Dex to use pumping Melee skill, get the same effective skill from Versatility (drop Pack Rathound to free up the slot; you won't have much gear weight to worry about).  You can easily recover the 25 skill points you need to keep in Guns from your substantial overinvestment in crafting skills - you can take 30 points each out of Mechanics, Chemistry, and Biology, and 20 points out of Tailoring, and still make everything you'd possibly want to use in the entire game.  Plus, with 14 Dex instead of 10, you'd pick up an extra attack per round with your pistol.

edit: forgot to include the +2 Int from Hypercerebrix; you could actually go -35 to Mech, Bio, Chem, -25 to Tailor, -10 to Electronics, and a whopping -45 to Persuasion.  You've got a lot of wasted skill points in that build.

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Builds / Re: Juggernaut build that dosnt miss out on crafting and dialouge?

« on: February 03, 2021, 07:02:17 am »

Never take Conditioning for any build.  Weaponsmith doesn't apply to firearms so I don't see why you'd want it.  Salesman isn't a waste, and I like it, but I can't really recommend it unless you're sure it's worth a feat slot to be able to sell your accumulated loot in fewer merchant rounds.

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Builds / Re: Juggernaut build that dosnt miss out on crafting and dialouge?

« on: February 03, 2021, 04:48:09 am »

Most (not all, of course) dialog options are gated by Persuasion or Intimidation for gathering info or changing effects, or Mercantile for changing rewards.  So pretty much regardless of your stats, all you need are a few dozen points in those skills and you can use gear and buffs to get you to the thresholds you want.

You're probably going to want 7 Int if you're serious about crafting, since most of the best crafting feats are gated by 7 Int; that'll help you get that Mercantile.  Even with 3 Will, you only need like 30 points in Intimidation because there's a lot of +Intimidation gear in the game.  Persuasion will be a little more costly for a 3Will build, because there are fewer gear options to boost your skill, more Persuasion checks (since it has no combat utility, unlike Intimidate), and a lot more medium-high threshold checks.

Fortunately, tin can AR only really requires one skill - Guns.  And it doesn't require maxing Perception, and it relies on mitigation not soaking so you can run it with only moderate Constitution, and aside from 6 Agility you only need Perception, some Stregnth, and whatever Con you can spare.  So you should be able to get 7 Int as well.

Depending on how you feel about using food buffs to keep your character working, you could use something like this as a skeleton build for stats and skills.  The downside is that you'd have to work up to those thresholds so you'd have a longer power curve to ride before you get to full stompy murder machine power; the upside is you'd be able to hit all the thresholds for everything and still have a lot of skill points left over for other things that you could have your character do.

Tin can AR is pretty forgiving, because it's terribly powerful.  Aside from probably needing to do a few merchant runs to keep your ammo stockpile topped up, it's about as simple and un-demanding a build as UnderRail offers.

edit: fixed link

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Suggestions / Re: Lightning Punches Sugestion

« on: February 01, 2021, 11:35:57 am »

Armor penalties were adjusted back when Expedition was in beta specifically so that many of those armors would take the wearer out of the range for LP (we used to be able to abuse Super Steel armor. Ah, the good old days).  I suspect that unless Styg has changed his mind, it's working as intended.  It's meant for lightly-armored characters to help the glass cannon play style be a bit more cannon.

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Builds / Re: Asking for suggestion to improve my energy pistol build.

« on: January 26, 2021, 07:03:16 am »

If I would take premed what psi do you recommend to use along with it?

Ambush is interesting, I pick it just cause of that sweet crit chance, I don't really understand it. Is it really reliable?

Whatever psi you need to use at the time, really.  I like to spend spec points on cooldown reduction; if you know you're going to start a fight, then trigger Premeditation and let the duration start ticking down.  When it's under 5 seconds, manually start turn-based mode and get to killing.  If you use LTI at the end of the first turn, then you can use Premeditation two turns in a row - or use it on turns 1 and 3 of combat without the LTI. Half psi cost, 0 AP, extended range - you'll find all sorts of good uses for it.

Ambush is fairly reliable.  As long as you're in shadows, it's easy to make your enemies stand in lighted tiles - just set them on fire with molotovs.  While you do need to be a little bit close, you won't need to be point blank range.

Still, these are just suggestions.  Your original concept will work fine if you don't like the idea of giving up Steadfast Aim.

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Builds / Re: Asking for suggestion to improve my energy pistol build.

« on: January 26, 2021, 12:08:33 am »

Premed sound really nice, but I think I could manage without it, since my build isn't psi heavy, and I probably use PTA out of combat, which may follow up with psi booster. I don't know if I want more crit damage, isn't it quite overkills?

Premeditation lets you take an action for 0AP.  The psi cost reduction is just icing on the cake; the cake is an action for 0AP.  That's huge.  Screwed up a throw? RNG fed you three misses in a row?  Got enemies right in front of you and no AP to save your life?  Well, well, well, if it isn't Premeditation to save the day.

You've got Critical Power.  There's no such thing as too much crit multiplier.  You want all of it.  Your crit chance will be pretty high anyway, especially if you use food and drug buffs.
edit: and don't forget about Ambush.  With crafted stealth gear, you're going to have awfully near 100% crit chance if you're standing in shadows, even without Steadfast Aim.

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Builds / Re: Asking for suggestion to improve my energy pistol build.

« on: January 25, 2021, 09:32:43 pm »

I'm not sure I'd go with Steadfast Aim, even though you plan to make good use of electroshock and plasma pistols.  It's the only feat you've got with a Strength requirement, and I'm not sure it's worth losing out on those two points.  I'd much rather slip an extra point into Int and get Premeditation, for any build with psi.  That would also let you max Dexterity for the additional small gains in weapons skill, or, better yet in my opinion, get 7 Int and get some nice crafting feats to make your energy weapons much better.  Practical Physicist and Power Management will make a really big difference in this build, and they both have a stat requirement of 7 Int.  I'd much, much rather lose Steadfast Aim and gain Premeditation, Practical Physicist, and Power Management; it's not even close.

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Bugs / Re: Exothermic Aura

« on: January 19, 2021, 03:56:21 pm »

The fire lasts longer than the immunity to fire, so if you can't move out of the flames you spawn, then when the effect wears off, you'll take damage.  It can, indeed, kill you.

Is it a bug? Who knows.  It's worked that way forever and people have mentioned it a lot, so Styg should certainly know about it.

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Builds / Re: Build recommendation for Expedition

« on: January 18, 2021, 03:16:12 pm »

Yes to both, but you should probably also fit in Practical Physicist, and if you plan to also make and carry around chem pistols (which I would recommend if it fits your build concept) then you should also get Mad Chemist and Cooked Shot.

If you do pick up some melee feats, and also decide to make and use chem pistols, you're going to have a bunch of stuff in your inventory, so Quick Pockets might become worth a look.  Switching between your pistols (presumably a damage pistol like laser or plasma, and a CC pistol like acid or fire chem pistol) and your pneumatic infused leather combat gloves when someone gets in your face might become something you have to do occasionally, and it can be nice to have enough AP left after the switch to get a few good hits in.

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Builds / Re: Build recommendation for Expedition

« on: January 18, 2021, 03:44:07 am »

You'd be missing out on psi if you ignore psi.  That's about it.

Psi is pretty nice, and essentially any build that doesn't use psi can be improved by using psi.  However, there's no need to add it in to your build if you prefer not to.  Energy pistols are strong enough that they can handle any difficulty without using psi, and that's especially true for crafted energy pistols.

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Builds / Re: Build recommendation for Expedition

« on: January 17, 2021, 03:27:41 pm »

Since the instroduction of the Versatility feat, I've found it hard to justify a pistol build that isn't a dex melee build with guns skill from Versatility.  You want high Dex anyway to get a lot of shots off, so it just sort of seems too obvious that rather than try to run two high stats, run one very high and do two things with it.  There's an added benefit there in that it can be awfully tough to naturally get an energy pistol in the very early game, so you can just go around stabbing and/or punching things until you get a few nice pistols, and pick up Versatility a few levels into the game.

High Dex, 6 or 7 Agi for stealth and sprint (and Interloper if you really it), 3 Per unless you want some feats with a Per requirement, and as much Int as you can spare, preferably 10 but at least 7.

Max melee, just enough Guns to get your feats, probably go real heavy on stealth (maybe max it).

Probably get Combo and Expose Weakness so your punching is effective; most other feats can go to your pistols and QoL.

Spec points won't actually matter much for the build to work so get whatever you feel like you'd like.